Evil child
by Nowa1
Summary: AU. Vader finds himself in unusual situation.
1. Epilog

**Chapter 1**

That dream was... strange. Even more than his earlier about a broken glass. He was dreaming that his body was whole again... or maybe it wasn't his body, maybe he was looking from someone's point of view? No... though his point of view wasn't the same, he felt strange assurance that this _is_ his body. He was still lightheaded and strangely sleepy. Sleepy in sleep... interesting experience.

Dark haired woman sat on his bed and started to stroking his hair. His hair! It felt so real that he didn't want to wake up anymore! Then nurse, he assumed, asked him about something. He couldn't quite concentrate on her words. It was so amazing to hear again someone's voice without kriffing mask! He nodded without any reason. It was strange, usually he planned his next moves so his crew wouldn't read him too easily. Being a mystery was great help to scare people. Less known, more dangerous. Scared people are more obedient and disciplined and so more competent. And competence was that what he demanded. But it was dream so he didn't have to be commander, did he?

Then the doors opened and revealed two men and blonde woman in handcuffs. He looked closer at blonde. He knew her from somewhere. This time he was determined to listen to blonde.

"Do you remember me?"she asked in familiar voice. Oh, yes, now he remembered. Strike, commander of 12th squadron. She was one of longer working under his command officers. He remembered her well, though he wasn't meeting with her very often. When did he start dreaming about his officers? Surprisingly he couldn't find his voice so he just nodded in response. Why did she had handcuffs anyway?

"Do you want to talk with her? You don't have to, she can't do anything to you here." He looked at nurse. Of course Strike couldn't do anything to him. Not only here but anywhere. And he certainly never _has to_ talk with her. He nodded again. He was curious as to what his imagination would tell him. Strike looked at men expectantly. He felt a nurse hugging him. "Alone?" He nodded and freed himself from woman's arms. He didn't approve this closeness and certainly not in presence of his subordinates. He was a grown, married once man. "Are you sure?" This woman started to unnerve him. When he says 'yes', then he means that. When finally he and Strike were left alone, he felt the mask of his subordinate dropping and reaveling great amount of uncertainty and more than a bit of confusion.

"Uhh, hi."She sat on chair by his bed still with handcuffs."Sir,"she added after awhile. It did surprise him a little. He thought that someone who survived on his ship for almost two years would be more familiar with protocol. She should stand in his presence, dream or not. And 'hi'? Though after he thought awhile he could justice her. She saw him only in armor after all. It's a huge change. How did she ever know that's him? His thinking was interrupted by Strike suddenly rise from chair.

"I am insane,"she stated calmly." It's just kriffing dream. I will be awake soon. Yes, and then I will go to the bridge and see him in his kriffing black cape and even blacker mask with the blackest armor in the universe!"she laughed maniacally. His eyes widened in astonishment. And then she stopped laughing and her face took on sorrowful expression.

"But it's not dream, my commander,"she whispered leaning to him and he found himself backing a little away,"and I don't know how to help you. Karun We is dead and I don't have the faintest idea how to..."She did undefined gesture."Make you a man again... In physical sense of course, I mean... Stop being a child!" His jaw dropped. What was wrong with this woman? And who was this Karun We? And how dare she shout at _him_?

"Do you remember what happend?" He shook his head slowly."You came back to Exactor after a fight with jedi. Then the bomb on your ship exploded. Medics said that armor is irreparable. Your personal physician decided to take you to a medical station for surgery. But your clone wasn't fully grown."She took a deep breath." You're six years old, my lord." They looked themselves in the eyes for a moment. Then he shook his head. What clone? Who or what is this Karun We? What surgery? And most importantly -what did she mean when she said SIX years old?!

"That's true."

What's this kriffing true? He shook his head again. 'No.'

"Yes."

'No.' He backed away from his insane officer and ended up falling from bed, floor welcomed him coldly. Very undignited and unlike a sith but well... situation wasn't very sith-like itself. 'Prove it,'he mouthed.

"Why would I lie? We have to escape, sir. One of the troopers was taken to prison too. We will make up some plan and somehow escape this, I promise you, my lord, that I will do everything I can."

Then the guards stepped into the room and grabbed Strike. He stand up quickly and walked to Strike. And looked _up_ to guards. He didn't saw that when he was laying in the bed but now... They were gigants! Or, he was a little six years old... No! That is a kriffing dream! He didn't even notice when he started repeating Strike's words. I will be awake soon. Guards were dragging a woman away, oblivious to his thoughts. A nurse walked into the room and rushed to hug him. he struggled against her and reached out to Strike. Men stopped. His breathing was hard, eyes couldn't stop on one thing. He felt lightheaded, emotions crushing him. He heard some cries and passed out. What the heck THIS meant?

* * *

When he awoke, he was in the same room as earlier. Someone put him in bed again. His head hurt. He had to hit it when he fell.

So that wasn't a dream. Or maybe it still was? Waking up from one dream to another? Twice? Maybe Strike was insane in his dream or lie to him? How to verify if it's dream or not? He pinched himself. It hurt a bit. But he did experience pain in nightmares before. Could he questioning the dream in dream?

Truly these shocks don't serve him. He tried to thought about what happend, assuming, of course, that it wasn't a dream.

Slowly almost everything was falling in place. Everything besides everything, and namely except his clone, the center of this mystery. Palpatine swore that his injuries were irreparable. That there wasn't any way to return his body. And cloning...Even Kaminoans couldn't clone the force sensitives, now could they? For a moment he remembered the feeling of slipping power and froze. But no, he could feel the auras around him, he was still a sith, right? He wouldn't be worth cloning without his powers...

He tried for an experiment to grab a bottle of water beside his bed. Nothing happened. He concentrated more and the bottle slightly shook. Then he tried to make small force lightening, but he couldn't remind himself how to do it. His eyes widened. He tried to sum up everything.

He was force sensitive, but he couldn't use the force as easy as before. He was a sith, but he couldn't use the dark side. He was a grown man in a body of six years old, if believe Strike's words.

That still didn't make any more sense than before. And it sounded like Jedi Code...

The doors opened and to the room walk middle-aged man in white robe. Man sat down on chair by his bed and smiled assuringly.

"You have to be confused. Your vocal cords aren't working as they should be, simply saying. Don't try to muster yourself to speaking, one of the reason for your little illness is a shock caused by change of the environment." Yeah, _little_ change, he thought bitterly, unconsciously accepting the truth that it wasn't hallucination."And there is a matter of your force sensitivness. You had to noticed that you can do some things that others can't. Your abilities won't be as strong as before, you got very big dose of drugs weakening your midi-,"Doctor looked at his datapad," midichlorians. Everything will be normal in few weeks. I will leave you alone for now." He nodded.

Drugs? He... His clone was drugged? He sighed. How he found himself in such ridiculus situation. One day he's a second in command Imperium and next a child in the rebel base.

But, maybe, just maybe he should use the occasion. It would be so easy to mislead rebels as child. They would never guess who he truly is. Though his new body had a negatives too. For example they wouldn't give any important information to child. He would have to break to a computers or eavesdrop to gain something. It wasn't very big problem for him but still impediment. Was it worthy? After all he wanted to escape from his 'job'. And he didn't know if the return to Emperor is still an option. He was almost sure that it was Sidious who ordered to weaken his force sensitivity. Old man always was afraid of his powers, he knew it from the begining. Sometimes he wondered if his master foresighted his failure on Mustafar.

Before the fight with Kenobi, he planned to overtake Sidious and rule the galaxy with Padme. But he knew that if he would have chance to change his decision, he would agree to everything Padme wanted. Disappeared with her and their child and live far away from problems of galaxy, siths and especialy jedi. Now he could do it, well almost. But where is the sense of starting a new life when you don't have anyone to share it with? What's the sense of his life anyway? Serve Palpatine and being someone who always got punished by Palpatine? Really?

Again he tried to sort out everything.

He was cloned. Why?

First option: Sidious wanted new appretience. It would explained his sickness. Emperor wanted to eliminate him. He send him new medical droids. They could poisoning him. How he didn't see it earlier? Missions on different ships with three different hyperbaric chambers. It was almost too easy to poison the air. Emperor's droid drugged him so he wouldn't felt warning of the force when he was in toxic gas. Yes, that did make sense. How could he be fool for so long? Anger burned inside him but he forced himself to calm down and thought rationally.

But if it was true, why his clone wasn't trained? Six or even five years were perfect ages to start training. And here was next problem. Why would Sidious try to kill him if he didn't have new, ready to killing appretience? Training in dark side took few years at very least plus swordsmanship, and Emperor needed very strong appretience to hold rebel Alliance and jedi at bay. And why he was in this body then? Why there is so much of why? Why, why, why. It sounded almost like barking dog that bared the way to understanding...

Second option: ... _Emperor hate me so he wanted to complicate my life even more. That's hopeless._

He sighed. Thinking like this always ended up headache or/and sleepless nights. And in his most organized life one sleepless night mean two or more days being exhausted. But it wasn't his organized life anymore. He looked around the room more closely. There was a chair, a bedside table with a bottle of water on it and small computer. There was also a window, a door... oh, and a floor too. What a surprise. He sighed again. It was so boring here. He reached for a computer. Screen display some games but he didn't find them interesting. He hacked parental controle and connected with holonet. He found the site he was looking for and saw big picture of him. That could be intresting, he thought and clicked on link.

_"Failure of Imperial Flote under a command of Darth Vader himself on Hajuun VII." _His eyes widened. What? "_Rebels escaped almost without any problem. Our reporter found someone who was willing to share with us his observations from week ago." _Video stopped and screen displayed white mask of trooper. Vader wasn't surprised. Soldiers weren't allowed to report to someone elses than their commanders, there were penalties for something like this. But who will try to find one clone in the hundreds of them.

_"This fight was very different than any other I was through under command of Lord Vader. " _He couldn't believe in the report of soldier and checked again the date of battle, learning by the way that his incident with bomb was almost two weeks ago. That wasn't him! Someone impersonate him. That was for sure. But who, why and how he didn't know. Emperor surely would unmasked the impostor very quickly. And after such failure even the best man couldn't hide the truth. His thoughts were interrupted by dark-haired nurse.

"Hey, little one. What did interested you so much, hmm?"He tried to hide computer but he wasn't quick enough and she saw the screen anyway. Personal note: as amazingly his body was feeling it was in very need of training immediately. Nurse frowned and take computer from him. "How did you hacked in here?" He wasn't in mood and tried to force push a woman. She didn't flinch. Training _immediately._ "Well?" He shrugged trying not to look as irritated as he truly was. "What interest have you in politics, huh?"

He grited his teeth. Nurse was unnerving him from the beginning. He wanted to show this arrogant woman who she has to deal with. The problem was that he couldn't do it. He wasn't able to do it. And it angered him even more. He was so weak. No match even for good padawan, for any padawan. Anger slowly was changing in something else. Despair.

He didn't even realized when hot tears ran down his cheek. He could do everything and now he wasn't respected even by nurse. He was a sith and a word 'was' was a key. He will not be the same ever again. Why he always have to find a way to kriff his life? Why he had to fell in love with Amidala and not someone else? Someone who wouldn't be so stubborn? Why he had to kill _her_. Why every thing remind him of his wife even ten years after her death. _Why..._

**So, what do you think?**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The dream was... strange. He was dreaming that his body was whole again... or maybe it wasn't his body? Maybe he was looking from someone's else point of view? No... though his point of view wasn't the same, he felt strange assurance that this _was_ his body. He was still lightheaded and strangely sleepy. Sleepy in sleep... interesting experience.

Dark haired woman sat on his bed and started to stroke his hair. His hair! It felt so real! He didn't mind that he was being treated like child at all. Then the nurse, he assumed, asked him about something in her soothing voice. He couldn't quite concentrate on her words. It was so amazing to hear someone's voice again without kriffing mask! The kind woman was waiting for his answer. He nodded, unsure.

Then the doors opened and revealed two men and a blonde woman in handcuffs. He looked closer at the woman. He knew her from somewhere. This time he was determined to listen to the blonde.

"Do you remember me?" she asked in familiar voice. Oh, yes, now he remembered. Strike, commander of 12th Squadron. She was one of the officers who had worked longer under his command. He remembered her well, though he hadn't met with her very often. When had he started dreaming about his officers? Surprisingly he couldn't find his voice, so he just nodded in response. Why did she have handcuffs, anyway?

Do you want to talk with her? You don't have to; she can't do anything to you here."He looked at the nurse. Of course Strike couldn't do anything to him. Not only here, but anywhere. And he certainly never had to talk with her. He nodded again. He was curious as to what his imagination would tell him. Strike looked at the men felt the nurse hugging him. "Alone?" He nodded and freed himself from the woman's arms. He didn't approve of this closeness and certainly not in the presence of his subordinates. He was a grown, once-married man. "Are you sure?" This woman was starting to unnerve he says 'yes', he means it. When finally he and Strike were left alone, he felt the emotional mask of his subordinate dropping, revealing a great amount of uncertainty and more than a bit of confusion.

"Uh, hi." She still sat on chair by his bed with handcuffs. "Sir," she added after a did surprise him a little. He thought that someone who had survived on his ship for almost two years would be more familiar with protocol. She should be able to stand in his presence, dream or not. And 'hi'? Though after he thought awhile he could understood her. She saw him only in armor, after all. It was a huge change. How did she even know it was him? His thinking was interrupted by Strike suddenly rising from the chair.

"I am insane," she stated calmly. "It's just a kriffing dream. I will be awake soon. Yes, and then I will go to the bridge and see him in his kriffing black cape and even blacker mask with the blackest armor in the universe!" She laughed eyes widened in astonishment. And then she stopped laughing and her face took on a sorrowful expression.

"But it's not a dream, my commander," she whispered, leaning towards him, and he found himself backing a little away, "And I don't know how to help you. Karun We is dead and I don't have the faintest idea how to..." She gestured in a way that he didn't understand. "Make you a man again... in the physical sense of course, I mean...stop being a child!" His jaw dropped. What was wrong with this woman? And who was this Karun We? And how dare she shout at him?

"Do you remember what happened?" He shook his head slowly, still angered and disoriented by her earlier outburst. "You came back to Ferocity after a fight with some Jedi, I think. Then the bomb on your ship exploded. Medics said that your armor is irreparable. Your personal physician decided to take you to a medical station for surgery. But your clone wasn't fully grown." She took a deep breath."You're six years old, my lord." They looked one another in the eyes for a moment. Then he shook his head. What clone? Who or what is this Karun We? What surgery? And most importantly -what did she mean when she said SIX years old?!

"Yes."

'_No_.' He backed away from his insane officer and ended up falling from bed; the floor welcomed him coldly. Very undignified and unlike a Sith but well... the situation itself wasn't very sith-like. _'Prove it,_' he mouthed.

"Why would I lie? We have to escape, sir. One of the troopers was taken to prison, too. We will make up some plan and somehow escape this. I promise you, my lord, that I will do everything I can."

Then the guards stepped into the room and grabbed Strike. He stood up quickly and walked to Strike. And looked _up_ to the guards. He didn't see that when he was laying in the bed but now... they were giants! Or, he was a little six-year-old... No! This is only my new nightmare. He didn't even notice when he started repeating Strike's words. I will be awake soon. The guards were dragging a woman away, oblivious to his thoughts. A nurse walked into the room and rushed to hug him. He struggled against her and reached out to Strike. The men stopped. His breathing was hard, his eyes couldn't stop on one thing. He felt lightheaded, his emotions crushing him. He heard some cries and passed out. What the kriff did THAT mean?

When he awoke, he was in the same room as earlier. Someone had put him in bed again. His head hurt. He had to have hit it when he fell.

So that hadn't been a dream. Or maybe he was still dreaming. Waking up from one dream into another? Twice? Maybe Strike had been insane in his dream or had lied to him? How was he to verify if it was a dream or not? He pinched himself. It hurt a bit. But he had experienced pain in nightmares before. Could he question a dream while in dream?

Truly, these shocks didn't serve him. He tried to think about what had happened. Assuming, of course, that i this wasn't a dream, now.

Slowly, almost everything was falling in place. Everything besides everything, and, namely, except his clone, the center of this swore that his injuries were irreparable. That there wasn't any way to return his body. And cloning...Even Kaminoans couldn't clone the Force sensitives, now could they?For a moment he remembered the feeling of his power slipping and froze. But no, he could feel the auras around was still a Sith, right? He wouldn't be worth cloning without his powers, he thought bitterly.

He tried as an experiment to grab a bottle of water beside his bed. Nothing happened. He concentrated more and the bottle shook slightly. Then he tried to make a little Force lightening, but he couldn't remind himself how to do it.

He tried to sum up was Force sensitive, but he couldn't use the Force as easily as before. He was a Sith, but he couldn't use the dark side. He was a grown man in a body of a six-year-old, if he believed Strike's words.

That still didn't make any more sense than before.

The doors opened and into the room walked a middle-aged man in a white robe. The man sat down on a chair by his bed and smiled assuringly.

"My name is Daniel and I will be your doctor. You have to be confused, son. Your vocal cords aren't working as they should be, simply saying. Don't try to force yourself to speak. One of the reasons for your little illness is a shock caused by a change in the environment." Daniel smiled again. "And there is a matter of your Force sensitivity. You had to have noticed that you could do some things that others cannot. Your abilities won't be as strong as before, you got very big dose of drugs weakening your midi-," The doctor looked at his datapad, "midi-chlorians. But everything should be normal in few weeks. I will leave you alone for now." Vader nodded.

Drugs? He... His clone was drugged? He sighed. How he had found himself in such ridiculous situation? One day he's the Empire's second in command , and the next, a child at the Rebel base.

But, maybe, just maybe he should use the occasion to his advantage. It would be so easy to mislead the Alliance as child. They would never guess who he truly was. Though his new body had negatives too. For example, they wouldn't give any import_ant information to a child. He would have to break into computers or eavesdrop in order to gain something. It wasn't a very big problem for him, but still an impediment. Was it worthwhile? After all, he wanted to escape from his 'job'. And he didn't know if returning to the Emperor was still an option. He was almost sure that it was Sidious who had ordered the cloners to weaken his Force sensitivity. The old man had always been afraid of his powers, he had known it from the beginning. Sometimes he wondered if his master foresaw his failure on Mustafar.

Before the fight with Kenobi, he planned to overtake Sidious and rule the galaxy with Padme. But he knew that if he could have the chance to change his decision, he would agree to everything Padme wanted. Disappeared with her and their child and lived far away from problems of galaxy, Siths, and especially Jedi. Now he could do it—well almost. _Changed comma to a dash. I think it works better. What he's doing her is interrupting his own thought. _But where is the sense of in starting a new life when you don't have anyone to share it with? What's the sense of his life anyway? _I might change "sense" to "point" or "meaning." _To serve Palpatine, and to being be someone who always got gets punished by Palpatine? Really?

Again he tried to sort out everything.

He was cloned. Why?

Option 1: Sidious wanted new apprentice. _Fixed spelling. _It would explained his sickness. The Emperor wanted to eliminate him. He send had sent him new medical droids. They could be poisoning him. How he didn't hadn't he seen it earlier? It was almost too easy to poison the air in his hyperbaric chamber. Emperor's droid had drugged him so he wouldn't felt feel warning of the Force when while he was in the toxic gas. Yes, that did make sense. How could he be a fool for so long?

Anger burned inside him, but he forced himself to calm down and think rationally.

But if that was were true, why hadn't his clone wasn't been trained? Six—or even five years—were was a perfect ages age to start training. And there was the next problem. Why would Sidious try to kill him if he didn't have a new apprentice ready to kill in the name of the Empire. Training in the dark side took a few years at the very least, plus swordsmanship, and the Emperor needed very strong apprentice to hold the Rebel Alliance and Jedi at bay. And why he was in this body then? Why were there so many whys? Why, why, why.

Second option: ... The Emperor hates me, so he wanted to complicate my life even more. That's hopeless.

He sighed. Thinking like this always ended up in a headache or/and sleepless nights. And in his most highly organized life, one sleepless night meant two or more days being exhausted. But it wasn't his organized life anymore. He looked around the room more carefully. There was a chair, a bedside table with a bottle of water on it, and small computer. There was also a window, a door... oh, and a floor too. What a surprise. He sighed again. It was so boring here and he needed something to do. Something that would stop his thoughts. He reached for a computer. The screen displayed some games, but he didn't find them interesting. He hacked the parental controll and connected with the holonet. He found the site he was looking for and saw big picture of himself. That could be interesting, he thought, and clicked on the link.

"Failure of Imperial Fleet under a command of Darth Vader on Hajuun VII." His eyes widened. What? "Rebels escaped with plans for the new ships for Imperial Fleet. Our reporter found someone who was willing to share his observations from week ago." Video stopped and screen displayed white mask of trooper. Vader wasn't surprised. Soldiers weren't allowed to report to anyone other than their commanders. There were penalties for things like this. But who would be able to find one clone in the hundreds of them?

"This fight was very different than any other I was went through under the command of Lord Vader," said a familiar voice, but Vader couldn't believe the soldier's report. Again, he checked the date of the battle, learning that this incident with a bomb was almost two weeks ago. That wasn't him!Someone was impersonating was for sure. But who, why, and how, he didn't have any idea. The Emperor surely would unmasked the impostor very quickly. And after such a failure, even the best man couldn't hide the truth. His thoughts were interrupted by the dark-haired nurse.

"Hey, little one. What is interesting so much, hmm?" People here smiled a lot, he noticed. He tried to hide the computer, but he wasn't quick enough, and she saw the screen anyway. Personal note: as amazing as his body was feeling, it was in very need of training immediately. The nurse frowned and take took the computer from him. "How did you hack in there?" she asked, surprised. He wasn't in the mood, and tried to Force push the woman. She didn't flinch. Training immediately. He shrugged, trying not to look as irritated as he truly was. "What interest have you in politics, huh?"

He gritted his teeth. He wanted to show this arrogant woman who she had to deal with. The problem was that he couldn't do it. He wasn't able to do it. And it angered him even more. He was so weak. No match even for a good Padawan, for any Padawan. Anger was slowly changing into something else. Despair and helplessness.

He didn't even realize that hot tearswere running down his cheek. He could do everything and now he wasn't respected even by a nurse. He was a Sith, and a the word 'was' was the key. He would not be the same ever again. Why did he always have to find a way to kriff up his life? Why did he have to fall in love with Amidala and not someone else? Someone who wouldn't have been so stubborn? Why did he have to kill her? Why did everything remind him of his wife, even ten years after her death? Why...


End file.
